No matter how great or small it may be.
By now, you have probably got it figured that I'm a professional artist. In fact, that is ostensibly why my husband and I tackled this RV renovation...
We are all about creating a mobile living and studio space... it is truly the whole purpose of our efforts.
Well... almost the whole of it. I also needed a project to keep my Energizer Bunny of a husband occupied during this pandemic. Ha!
Despite our superficial differences, my husband and I value the same things, and that most certainly includes fine art.
Interestingly enough, the first thing we bought as a young and newly engaged couple was a fine art print of an extraordinary painting by British Contemporary Artist David Tindle
Curious? Click HERE for a glimpse of the print that captivated us. (It still hangs in our home, by the way. We truly believe that art is meant to be collected and treasured).
We stumbled upon Tindle's beautiful composition in a gallery located in the Westwood neighborhood of Los Angeles (near UCLA). Our primary purpose that day was to visit a local jewelry store in order to select and purchase our wedding bands.
There were practical items to acquire for our future home as well. And yet, we bought art.
Such were our priorities then... and now. The irresistible nature of art cannot be denied.
Thus, it seems only natural that our RV living space reflects our appreciation of beautiful art.
In my last post, I described the beginnings of a favorite plan of mine: to create a French-styled
screen from our RV's bedroom door, complete with hand-painted landscapes by "yours truly."
Before I go any further, you should know that I must maintain my commitments and thus, keep up with my regular fine art work production schedule. Thus, our RV project unfortunately takes a back seat to my day job.
Obviously, I haven't made as much progress as I suspect that either you or I would like. However, some progress is always better than no progress... And so, this tortoise continues to plod along in her efforts to renovate our RV, "Van Go."
Okay, with that being established, let me show you progress pics, beginning with the application of the crackle finish.
This photo picks up where my last post left off. Having painted the base coat and applied the crackle medium over the top of the base coat, I moved to the next step of painting the lighter coat of linen-white paint over the crackle medium. And voila! As the chalk, linen-white paint began to dry, it crackled.
Here's a close up of the area so that you can see it better.
Once the paint thoroughly dried, I tackled the next step: creating the trompe l'oeil frames. You can either paint these freehand style or if you wish to save time, there are a number of stencil companies, such as Royal Design Studio, that specialize in architectural-style stencils.
Enuf of the details. Here's how my efforts paid off...
And then it was time for me to prepare the door for painting my landscapes. Quite honestly, I was tempted to skip this step. After all, it is simply a decorative door. However, for the sake of the quality and the longevity of my paintings, I ultimately decided to prepare the "substrate" with artist's gesso...a type of acrylic primer used on bare canvas and other painting surfaces.
As you can see, the application of gesso require that I tape off the area once more. Once I removed the tape, I recognized the advantage of painting with gesso. The process helped to clean up the edges of my trompe l'oeil frame and give the overall project a more professional look. Here's the prepared door...
And now, for my personal challenge... The painting of the individual landscapes within the frame. I've now moved the door to my studio as you can see in the following photo. I will be simultaneously working on other projects for the galleries that represent me and my work, and thus, this project will now necessarily slow in its progress.
Even so, I am delighted to put the door "prep" behind me and excited to move on to "the fun part," the creation of fine art on the door.
Oh, and as I promised previously, here's a quick tip for those of you who claim you have no artistic skills.
Do not despair...You certainly can achieve a similar outcome to what I hope to achieve. Creating the art within the frames need not intimidate or stop you from tackling this kind of project.
Instead of painting your own landscapes, why not simply purchase prints from an art gallery gift shop for your project?
After selecting and purchasing prints of some of your favorite artists' work, carefully trim the border of the prints. Then, simply use Mod Podge to affix the prints to the door and finish your project by applying a varnish or sealer over the entire door.
In this way, you can easily achieve a similar look to the one that I will be creating by hand.
And there you have it! A quick solution for those who want the look but are uncertain about their ability to create paintings.
Hope this helps you pursue your own fine art/RV dreams. Happy creating, everyone!
One final note: I promise to post photos of my own completed door as soon as possible.
But in the meantime, I'll see you soon with photos of my next RV project: the creation of window treatments for our RV's bedroom. Have a beauty- filled week!
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